FF News Logo
Wednesday, October 01, 2025
ITC Vegas

Breaking News

EXCLUSIVE: “To Boldly Go…” – Toine van Beusekom, Icon Solutions in ‘Discover Sibos 2025 Owen Morton and the Fintech Behind Daily Payouts: A New Standard for Prop Firms EXCLUSIVE: “Turning Back the Tide” – Maya Tuyen Reisinger, G+D and Simon Rosenberger, Parley for the Oceans in ‘The Fintech Magazine’ DailyPay Appoints Accomplished Technology and Product Leader Poulomi Damany As Chief Product Officer Addepar’s Global Expansion Accelerates with New Switzerland Office Nuvei Launches First AI Integration Agent to Accelerate Client Onboarding Brex Announces Launch of Stablecoin Payments Nium Launches Global Collections to Power Cross-Border Collections for Banks Nubank Applies for U.S. National Bank Charter PhotonPay Partners with Thredd to Enhance Card Infrastructure Plutus Secures Investment from ServiceNow Ventures to Accelerate Agentic AI Innovation for the Insurance Industry Encompass Closes Latest Funding Round, Led by BNP Paribas, to Fast-Track Further Innovation in Corporate Digital Identity Technology Raisin Expands Its Investment Offering to the Netherlands Swiss Bank Sygnum Launches BTC Alpha Fund in collaboration with Starboard Digital to Generate Yield on Bitcoin LSEG Introduces World-Check Verify, Powered by AWS: Instant, Embedded Screening for Frictionless Payments and Compliance

January 24 2018

More than 10% of ICO funds stolen according to EY – Positive.com comments

Share this post:

Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp
A new Ernst & Young report has found that more than 10 percent of the $3.7 billion raised in ICOs has been stolen due to cyber attacks. According to the report, hackers are stealing up to $1.5m in ICO proceeds a month.
Arseny Reutov, blockchain security expert at Positive.com has commented on the findings and what ICOs should be doing to protect themselves.
“ICOs provide a huge opportunity for scammers and attackers as they are essentially taking advantage of the promise of people making a huge return from relatively low investment. Unfortunately, this report shows the financial loss being inflicted is devastating when viewed at scale. 

“The reality is, the second a company goes public with an intention to do an ICO, it is waving a huge flag to cyber criminals that it is both valuable and also in a very vulnerable phase of its company growth. This research is proof that ICOs are not doing enough to protect themselves.

“There are some very basically things that ICOs could and should address to improve their security posture. Firstly, it is absolutely vital that the underlying code of the smart contract is purged of any vulnerabilities through development – once this goes live it cannot be changed. Secondly, organisations must ensure that the web applications their ICO use are being monitored and protected in real time – all the security of the blockchain means nothing if a hacker can misdirect funds from the web page. 
“Finally, there is the human factor. A major risk here is that open source intelligence will be used target members of the team – our own research suggests that every ICO has a team member who’s password can be found online. ICOs must do everything within their power to stop investors being tricked by phishing attacks. This is the hardest thing to secure, the only solution is to educate investors on the risks and warning signs and communicate as effectively as possible on official channels, to avoid investors being duped.

“This could potentially be a linchpin moment for the future of ICOs – they could disappear as quickly as they emerged. If ICOs are to prove themselves as a viable fundraising option, they must address the issue of security urgently.”
  1. EXCLUSIVE: “To Boldly Go…” – Toine van Beusekom, Icon Solutions in ‘Discover Sibos 2025

    Discover Sibos 2025

     Read more
  2. Owen Morton and the Fintech Behind Daily Payouts: A New Standard for Prop Firms

    Thought Leadership

     Read more
  3. EXCLUSIVE: “Turning Back the Tide” – Maya Tuyen Reisinger, G+D and Simon Rosenberger, Parley for the Oceans in ‘The Fintech Magazine’

    The Fintech Magazine

     Read more
  4. DailyPay Appoints Accomplished Technology and Product Leader Poulomi Damany As Chief Product Officer

    Hiring

     Read more
  5. Addepar’s Global Expansion Accelerates with New Switzerland Office

    News

     Read more
Gitex Global
More On